Breaking news from Iran...

A propos to our class discussion this week, I just read about another filmmaker facing censorship and government control. Here is the news from the CPH:DOX website:

IRANIAN FILMMAKERS DENIED LEAVING IRAN TO PARTICIPATE IN CPH:DOX
Iranian documentary filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb has been denied leaving Iran to participate in CPH:DOX - Scandinavia's largest documentary film festival, which takes place November, 6-15, 2009, in Copenhagen.

It is with great regret and disbelief that CPH:DOX has learned that one of Iran's foremost documentary filmmakers has had his passport revoked, and has been denied the right to leave Iran to participate in the international documentary film festival held this week in Copenhagen.

Mojtaba Mirtahmasb is the head of the Iranian Documentary Filmmakers Association (IRDFA), which in an official appeal sent out this summer has declared that "... the Iranian society has the right to demand documentary filmmakers to do their duty in capturing the social events taking place, and portraying the real pictures in their films ... Therefore, documentary filmmakers, due to their obligation and responsibility, have the right to be present in these social events, and to be able to capture the truth. This is the recognized right of documentary filmmakers across the world ..."

This appeal was published on the basis of the restrictions towards filmmakers and other media workers in Iran after the presidential elections on June 12, following the prohibitions against documenting the events after the elections, and the arrest of members of the association.

CPH:DOX in its seventh edition presents a broad spectrum of international documentary film art. Iranian documentary has in recent years claimed great international interest, and has been widely praised for its poetical and artistically strong voice.

One of the highlights in the programme of CPH:DOX 2009 is therefore a special series focusing on documentary filmmaking and other social media activities in Iran.

CPH:DOX had with great expectations been looking forward to have Mojtaba Mirtahmasb present for the festival along with several other talented, Iranian filmmakers. Mirtahmasb was supposed to have participated in a seminar on film and the Iranian reality, focusing on the artistic and cultural state of Iranian documentary.

Iranian cinema is of international format. It is therefore no less alarming and unacceptable that Iranian filmmakers are being prevented from documenting the situation in their own country, and from participating in and cooperating with the international community of documentarians. We appeal to the Iranian authorities to let the documentarians of Iran pursue their activities and present their works at film festival and other international events.

Mojtaba Mirtahmasb is not the only Iranian cineaste who has been held back by the Iranian authorities. Along with world famous filmmakers Jafar Panahi and actor Fatemeh Moatamed-Arya who are in the same situation, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb has recently published an open letter to Iranian media stating: "We have always been proud of our country's culture, and have shown it to the world. But now we have not been allowed to travel abroad. We aren't complaining, even if we don't know the nature of the accusation against us. We won't complain again, as we want to always remain independent Iranian cineastes."

CPH:DOX encourage all parts of the international community of documentary filmmakers and festivals to support this appeal to recognition of what our Iranian collegues themselves speak of as: "The recognized right of documentary filmmakers across the world ... to be able to capture the truth."